University Students in Seven Time Zones Design Car Factory Using Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE Platform and Cloud Technology

Global Engineering Learning Experiences Go Social

VÉLIZY-VILLACOUBLAY, France - May 27, 2014 - Dassault Systèmes (Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA), the 3DEXPERIENCE Company, world leader in 3D design software, 3D Digital Mock Up and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, and Ecole Nationale d'Ingénieurs de Metz (ENIM) today announced that ENIM and 15 other universities in ten countries around the world provide their engineering students with a unique social innovation and collaborative learning experience, based on Dassault Systèmes' 3DEXPERIENCE platform.

The pioneering “Global Factory” program, now preparing for its third year, brought together engineering students from a total of 16 different universities in seven different time zones, some 11 hours apart, by leveraging the multidisciplinary 3DEXPERIENCE platform from Dassault Systèmes.  All participants use the 3DEXPERIENCE platform and cloud technology for design authoring, digital manufacturingU, scientific simulation and analysis, as well as collaboration. The outcome of this program is a rich computer model of a complete automobile factory, optimized in multiple aspects, including building, floor layout, process definitions, throughput, robots and machine programs, operator ergonomics, and complex systems.

Participants in Global Factory

• Universidad Nacional de Cuyo (Argentina)
• Universidad Nacional de La Matanza (Argentina)
• Universidad Catholica de Córdoba (Argentina)
• Universidad Nacional de La Plata (Argentina)
• Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho (Brasil)
• Universidade Federal do Amazonas (Brasil)
• Nanjing University of Technology (China)
• Nanjing University of Science & Technology (China)
• Universidad de Antioquia (Colombia)
• Universidad EAFIT (Colombia)
• Khalifa University of Science Technology and Research (United Arab Emirates)
• Technical University Kaiserslautern (Germany)
• Instituto Tecnológico de Las Américas (Dominican Republic)
• Ecole Nationale d'Ingénieurs de Metz (France)
• UNIVERSIAPOLIS Ecole Polytechnique d'Agadir (Morocco)
• Universidad ESAN (Peru)

The success of the Global Factory program’s first two years has lead ENIM and the program’s other participants to plan an expansion of its disciplinary field in September 2014.  Global Factory will become in its third year “Digital Farm” and will lead agronomy, mechanical, ergonomy, systems and industrial engineering students to rethink agricultural equipment in the context of a farming experience.

“Social, cloud-based collaboration was a key reason the Global Factory program over-achieved its goal,” said Pierre Chevrier, Director, ENIM.  “In a dispersed environment, like ones real life engineers experience every day, social networking technologies are mandatory for successful innovation.  This is a fundamental competency that every engineer needs to succeed in today’s multi-cultural business world.”

The 3DEXPERIENCE platform’s 3DSWYM social application is essential to the project. Thanks to this social innovation environment, students are able to share ideas, ask questions, install applications and access training materials anytime, anywhere. Working together across international groups with different native languages, across dispersed time zones, is a challenge to complex innovation projects. Global Factory provides participants with experiential learning opportunities to understand and develop this competence.

“Innovation and collaboration are, at their hearts, social activities.  Social collaboration is an essential global engineering practice.  ENIM’s Global Factory program illustrates how our 3DEXPERIENCE platform is perfectly suited to transfer such competitive practices into a student’s learning experience,” said Philippe Forestier, Executive Vice President, Global Affairs, Dassault Systèmes.  “This is the future of education and we are proud to help forward thinking universities, such as ENIM and its partners, implement it.”